'Fidelio' Will Set You Free

March 07, 2004|By DAVID NICHOLSON Daily Press

A person's middle name can hold a key to their past. In the case of tenor Thomas Rolf Truhitte, it also has opened a door to his future.

Rolf is the name of the young Austrian, Rolf Gruber, seen in the 1965 movie musical, "The Sound of Music." It was Truhitte's father, Daniel, who played that role and sang the memorable song, "Sixteen Going on Seventeen."

Today, Truhitte is following in his father's footsteps, though his brand of musical theater is opera instead of musicals. Though only in his mid-30s, the young tenor has been tackling many of opera's most demanding roles, including the mythic heroes in Wagner's monumental works. Beginning Friday, he appears as Florestan in Virginia Opera's production of the Beethoven opera, "Fidelio."

Growing up in Southern California, Truhitte was more interested in baseball and playing the drums than in singing. But his mother was an opera lover, and music could always be heard throughout the house.

"From the age of 2, I've been listening to Mozart, Beethoven and Puccini. I remember as a kid getting lost in the album covers," he says. "I knew I could sing, but I never thought I wanted to be a singer."

After an ankle injury in high school, he began to give his natural singing ability more thought. He studied music and theater at California State University, Sacramento and spent five seasons as a resident artist with Opera San Jose in his home state. There, Virginia Opera Director Peter Mark first saw him and signed him to sing Siegmund in Wagner's "Die Walkyre" that opened the company's 2002-2003 season. The appearance earned Truhitte glowing reviews and led to other Wagnerian roles with Italy's Spoleto Festival and Minnesota Opera. He returns to Virginia Opera in 2005 to sing one of the title roles in Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde."

"The last couple of years have been an unbelievable blessing, and Virginia Opera has been the genesis," says Truhitte. "Now my father's thrilled, and I'm thrilled. I've never been happier."

Performing the music of Wagner is good training for the vocal demands of Florestan, the role he sings in "Fidelio," which was Beethoven's only opera.

"Beethoven treated the voices as if they were another instrument in the orchestra," says Truhitte. "When I first started looking at the role, I had no idea how hard it was. The high notes are extremely high, and they come after the voice takes a pounding in the middle register. But if you prepare yourself properly, it can be one of the most rewarding experiences for an artist."

First premiered in 1805, "Fidelio" is Beethoven's powerful statement against political oppression. In the opera, Florestan has been imprisoned in a Spanish fortress by his rival, Don Pizarro. Florestan's wife, Leonore, sneaks into the prison disguised as a young boy and eventually frees him. Though Leonore acts as the faithful wife, she also serves as a symbol for political freedom.

"At first it seems like a personal story," says Mark, "But Beethoven expands it into what holds a community together in fighting any kind of oppression."

For stage director Lillian Groag, the task was trying to present this concept to an audience living in the United States, a country that already enjoys tremendous freedom. She decided to make the opera a rallying cry against the decline in literacy and the arts in a nation she sees as over-saturated with television and pop culture.

"You read to learn to be able to think, and our kids aren't thinking anymore," says Groag. "We are creating a nation of illiterates. I think it's disastrous and it worries me terribly."

To underscore the theme, the "Fidelio" set is dominated by a pile of rubble made up of discarded typewriters, musical instruments and other implements of literature and the arts. As the chorus members celebrate their freedom at the opera's close, they retrieve these items from the pile.

For Truhitte, "Fidelio" belongs to that body of endangered works .

"I think people need this music now more than ever," he says. "Beethoven felt opera could really transform people. People today are looking for fast fixes, but they can be moved by great art."

David Nicholson can be reached at 247-4794 or by e-mail at dnicholson@dailypress.com.

WANT TO GO?

See Virginia Opera's "Fidelio" at 8 p.m. Friday and March 19, 2:30 p.m. March 14 and 21, and 7:30 p.m. March 17 at the Harrison Opera House, Llewellyn Avenue and Virginia Beach Boulevard, Norfolk. Tickets are $25-$90 available by calling 877-2550 or 623-1223 or online at vaopera.org.